Counteract
by ncfan
Summary: -Lin, Chihiro- Sen, Lin decides, is an oddity, but one she can care about.


**Characters**: Lin, Chihiro/Sen**  
Summary**: Sen, Lin decides, is an oddity. But one she cares about.**  
Pairings**: None**  
Author's Note**: I know that Lin is officially a weasel spirit, but I prefer to think of her as human.**  
Disclaimer**: I don't own Spirited Away.

* * *

The way she starts to feel towards the girl makes Lin start to wonder whether she had any younger sisters in the impenetrable fog that is her life before the bathhouse, and starts to make her even more dissatisfied with what her 'life'—if it can even be called that—has become since signing over name, body and soul to Yubaba.

It's strange but not quite foreign what emotions Sen evokes in Lin.

At the first, it's quite difficult, nearly impossible for Lin to hide her contempt for the girl. Clumsy, callow, and—in Lin's eyes—more than a little rude, though the last may be due more to the carelessness induced by wonder and fear than an actual lack of manners. Plus, Lin knows who must have snuck her in to the bathhouse, and she—for reasons too close to her heart to readily disclose—doesn't trust anything or anyone even remotely connected to Haku.

This little girl is human, as Lin is, but it makes no difference. Lin knows better than to let compassion or any misplaced sense of solidarity cloud her judgment.

Still, Lin finds herself sticking her neck out for her. Once Kamajii gives her the newt Lin considers herself honor-bound to hold up her end of the bargain—she has her newt, and the little girl must be taken to Yubaba. But there's something else there, something Lin isn't quite ready to identify.

She still expects Yubaba to eat her alive. Lin remembers all too vividly her own first confrontation with Yubaba what seems like an eternity ago. She remembers being forced by unseen hands to her knees and held there, proud head bowed and back bent. Her shoulders were hunched and her lips almost tasted the floor, for longer than Lin cares to remember, until every muscle in her body was sore, numb, or aching. Her pride hurt more than anything else, and maybe that was the point—Yubaba wanted to break her, in a small way, before she took her.

Then, Yubaba remembered she was there—it still galls Lin that she could be so easily forgotten by anyone—, and with a weary flourish of the hand had Lin sign her life away.

Lin knows that, given Yubaba's reputation and her temperament, she's lucky not to have been cast out into the streets to just fade away. And that's exactly what she expects to happen to the bathhouse's newest arrival.

But it doesn't. Instead, Haku brings the girl down, and Lin sees her to be both nervous and flushed with success.

Haku introduces her as Sen. Sen… So that's her name now. Lin wonders if Sen mourns the loss of her true name, as she does.

_She must be braver than I thought_, Lin muses, _to have taken on Yubaba and come out still standing_, and she realizes for the first time that she was holding in a breath for the whole time Sen wasn't in her sight. _I was… worried?_

_Yeah… I think I was._

That doesn't stop her from being infuriated with Haku when he saddles the little human on her. Lin doesn't need a clumsy child tripping over her feet and Lin's as she trails behind her. But Lin's still insanely relieved that Sen's alright, and it shows. And it shows too, her concern shows, when Sen suddenly starts to cry, rocking back and forth on the dormitory floor.

Maybe she's sick? No; a quick hand to the forehead disproves that theory. Maybe she's just tired, or hungry; Lin wouldn't be surprised is such a small girl was tired after the sort of day she's had, and since she doesn't look even remotely like a pig Lin has to assume that Sen hasn't had anything to eat since her arrival in this world. Sen won't say what's wrong, only sobs quietly, pitifully, and Lin's left to wonder and draw her own conclusions.

Once Lin's done digging for clothes that fit her new assistant, she sneaks down to the kitchens and charms the cook (yes, despite all suspicions to the otherwise, Lin _does_ know how to be charming) into giving her a leftover dumpling for Sen. It might be just a little stale, but otherwise it's still good, and a little food in her stomach will make Sen feel better.

When she comes back up the backstairs, however, Sen is curled up under the vivid floral-print sheets of the pallet next to Lin's. Shiomi, who'd been out sick that day, has crawled out from her pallet and is leaning over Sen. "She said she was tired." The Yuna girl wrinkles her nose. "She'll be sniffling all night, I expect."

Lin frowns, marring her angular face.

The dumpling is fed to the birds.

Sen, she decides, while trying to get some sleep that night, is an oddity. She's obviously braver than she looks, but she breaks down crying for no reason. She cares about Haku—_And Kami-sama only knows why anyone'd care about _that_ louse_, Lin thinks sourly—though Haku has done nothing to deserve her concern or anyone else's.

And Sen makes her feel… odd.

It's only when the stench of the perilously polluted river spirit permeates the bathhouse that Lin realizes what she's feeling.

Lin's still under the impression that this is a stink spirit they're dealing with when she goes running after Sen. Stink spirits aren't exactly known for being friendly—if anything, they can be quite dangerous when properly provoked. In particular, they're known for _eating_ those who offend them; the stench comes primarily from the decaying corpses of those whom they devour.

Sen seems like just the sort who'd slip up and offend a stink spirit somehow.

"Don't worry!" Lin screams over the rushing water. "I won't let it hurt you!"

The words are out of Lin's mouth before she fully knows what she's saying, and she frowns momentarily. The realization comes a second later, that she cares about this girl. Lin cares about someone, for the first time in a long time.

That realization is the first thing capable of counteracting, to some extent, the malaise that's been on Lin's soul ever since she was first caged in the bathhouse. Lin doesn't bother to pretend she's surprised.


End file.
